Many supplies are needed in order to create a valid real looking license. Let's first begin with the basic supplies needed. You will first you need to get an exacto knife, I prefer the ones with the rubber handles, makes it easier on the hand when you are cutting the teslin. Scissors, a nice clean, sharp pair works perfectly fine. The kind that your teacher never let you use in elementary school is the best one to use. Sandpaper, will also be needed, 1000 and 1500 grit is suggested. A cutting board, this comes in handy when you don't want to leave slice marks in on a desktop

(http://www.brainstormidsupply.com). Laminator, this one I will go into detail about. Choosing the right laminator is very important, personally I prefer the GBC 40, which can be purchased at Office Max, for $49.99. It's cheap but it does get the job done right, and surprisingly it keeps the id held together through 3 times washed. The preferred laminator by many id makers is anyone with a temperature control, the better control you have over the heat, the better the lamination is going to be. A carrier, which is a guide for the id to sit in so your rolls on the laminator don-t get messed up. A few index cards, just the size that will fit through the laminator.

Now we move onto one of the biggest parts, PRINTERS. Printing with a HP 620C, will definitely not do the job and your id will look like a 5 year old made it. Preferably use an Epson C80, or any Epson line. If you don't have an Epson or can't get your hands on one, any HP 900 Series will do the job right. Teslin, the oilpaper in which you will be printing the templates onto, can be ordered online. http://www.brainstormidsupply.com - Recommended place to buy teslin. If you have an inkjet printer, order inkjet teslin, and so on with laser. Believe it or not there is a difference between the two. Hologram's, you can either order these or make them yourself. In tutorial #2, I will go into detail on how to make precise holograms, but in this one, I suggest just ordering from a trusted site, Digital Rebellion usually has reviews and so does #fakeid and #identification on Dalnet. Camera, a digital camera one with at least 2.1 mega pixels, is recommended, any less and the quality decreases. Kodak makes nice cameras to use in this instance; I personally own one and my pictures have come out perfect.

Chapter 2 v Templates/Editing

Templates, are one of the biggest parts of the id making process, shitty templates equal shitty ids. Usually people on Digital are willing to trade or pass a quality template on to you. Making your own template is another possibility, but it takes much skill, time and patience. Something not a lot of people obtain, so if you-re a beginner, stick with the pre-made templates. A good template ranges from any from sizes of 50 v 90 megabytes. Now, mostly all templates come in a .PSD file, for those of you who are new, it-s an Adobe Photoshop image. Designers do this because they can fit many layers into one file, and the layers are editable, making it easy to re-enter information. Some knowledge of the program is needed but not necessary, you can read their free tutorials. Photoshop itself costs in excess of $500, but it is possible to find someone with a spare copy.

Well, now that you got your template that you want to use, we are ready to begin. First, the photo that you will be taking needs to be at least a foot to two feet away from the person. Lighting doesn’t really matter; just make sure it is enough to see. Take the picture on a white clear wall, this allows for easier editing of the photo. Once, the photo has been taken, we now move onto to the editing phase of the photo. You will need to replace the background on the picture with one of a light blue, my suggestion, is copy the blue from the picture blue on your template. This is where the skill comes in, you have to make the photo look believable, or otherwise, it-s going to be crap. Make sure you get rid of all white effects all around the hair, neck, and shoulders. After replacing the background is complete, you will then need to add some form of lighting effect to the picture to help intensify, and make it look more believable. My choice in lighting in Photoshop, is Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Adjust the circle around the picture, so there is more light exposure. Switch light type to Omni Light, Intensity and Exposure levels need to be adjusted. You decide on the levels you want to use, I personally like to use Intensity v 18, Exposure v 13. But once again this is an option that varies from picture to picture. How the picture is taken, what kind of camera, you get the general idea.

Next we move to the cutting stage, you will need to cut the picture from about a half an inch above the head to right below the shoulders. Basically take a look at your real license and try and follow how that looks. Upon cutting it you will need to resize and possibly upsize or downsize to fit the borders in which the picture is suppose to go. This can take some time to get it perfect, but the better it looks the better it will work. After completing the first picture on the left, we will move to the second picture on the right. Downsize this one a lot to fit the borders, after resizing the second picture, you will need to make the opacity 40%. This will make the picture look faded to an extent that is needed.

Editing the license should be fairly easy. Basically all you will have to do is change the information around to fit the needs of the person in whom your making it for. The license number really doesn’t matter, not like in Michigan or some others states where the first letter is the letter of your last name. I use B to start the license number. Another suggestion that is very helpful and usually works for me is to go to www.whitepages.com and search for someone with the last name that you-re making the id for. This will give you a street address, city, and zip. It-s very helpful, when you do not know many cities in which you are making the id for. On the bottom of the id are a bunch of numbers and letters and, those are just to tell where the picture was taken and the id was made. Now, there are two ways to do the signature on the id, one is to have a person sign a piece of paper, then scan it, size it down and import it into the template (recommended way). The second way is to download a signature font, and then just type it in. In my opinion it looks fake.

First, we must edit the back of the template of the id. Try and download a CA Barcode program, it allows you to enter the expiration date and the drivers license number of the person and it will make you the bar code for the back. Copy the picture to the clipboard; now import it onto the id. If you don-t have this program or can-t find it don-t worry.

Chapter 3 v Printing

Printing is one of the most complicated parts of making the id in my opinion. Everything must be perfectly aligned right and set up in order to create a believable looking id. You will first need to print out a black and white copy of the id on a piece of white paper. After printing out the black and white copy, you will then need to cut a strip of teslin to fit over the area in which you printed on. After cutting the piece of teslin, tape the corners of the teslin down. Put the paper back in the printer and then before printing set the DPI to the highest setting and the best quality printing. It is also recommended that you change the paper setting to photo quality. The paper will come out, I suggest putting it in front of a fan to let it dry quicker. Leave it there for about a minute or so. After, drying off comes a very difficult part lining up the teslin with the print previous to it. You must be sure to exactly line up the teslin with then picture on the paper. My suggestion is to put the paper and the teslin in front of a light and have someone tape the corners down for you. After taping the corners put the paper back into the printer, we will now be moving on to the back of the id. Now, print to the back of the teslin, you should be printing at the same resolutions as was before. Pull it out of the printer and put it in front of the fan for another minute. And now we-re ready to move to the next stage of the process.

Chapter 4 v Laminating

Laminating is one of the biggest parts too of the id process, it includes much time and patience trying to make sure everything is aligned properly. Otherwise, you just wasted a piece of teslin and a perfectly good hologram. Now, take your hologram and separate the top and the bottom. Take a rag and just get it a little wet, and wipe down both the top and bottom parts of the hologram. After that set it in front of the fan and let it dry off. After it gets dry, set the top half of the hologram on the front side of the teslin. Now make sure it is aligned evenly and that that it-s equal distance all around the id. Now, tape three sides, the top, bottom, and the left side. Turn on the laminator; once the ready light comes on we-re ready to begin. After taping is complete, put the id in the carrier, then put the side that is not taped in the laminator slightly, just enough so that it doesn’t go through but laminates the one side. Now, pull it out, remove the tape, and run the id back through the laminator. This ensures that the id will not move from the current position that it is in. Making your id almost perfectly done. After the front, it laminated, put it again in front of a fan and let it cool down. Once, it is done, take it and put in on a hard surface or your cutting board and take out the exacto knife and start cutting the teslin away. Making sure not to leave any borders on the id. This will ensure less work later on in the process. Now, take the back part of the id, and align it evenly, and tape three corners once again. Put, the one side that isn’t tape slightly into the laminator, once complete, take it out. Remove all the tape and run the id back through the laminator. Now, your id is fully laminated and we-re ready to move to the last stage.

Chapter 5 v Finishing Touches

Your probably thinking, finally, we-re here, but the work isn’t all over yet. Take out the sandpaper 1000 or 1500 grit. Now, corner off the corners better, making sure that they are smooth and there is no hard spots. Give the edges a nice sand to making sure that when you rub your finger on the corners and edges it feels good. After completing this, take out the 1000 or 1500 grit sandpaper, and in a circular motion sand the front of the id. We are doing this to try to get rid of some of the gloss on the id. The less glossy the better it will turn out. Another way is to sand a little bit on the front with 1000 or 1500 grit, then take the id, go outside and run the shit in the dirt for a little bit, same for the back, Then take two dirty ass cards and put your id between them in your wallet. Leave it there for a day or two. Now, after sanding, check the corners and make sure there are no breaks in the laminate. Try to do a bend test on it, which is taking it length wise, and bending it slightly, if anything pops, run it back through the laminator. If not, you did a good job. But still give it a run through the laminator with lots of pressure. Put a few index cards above and below the carrier, and give it one finally run through. And now, your ID is complete. Congratulations!